Maybe APCS, maybe not.

I got the brilliant idea that we should offer AP Computer Science next year. Since I do not know much Java I figured I had better play with an IDE for Java. I bought a book, downloaded Eclipse and sat down to get to work. OMG! I have been using Microsoft IDEs way too long. Microsoft may have some issues (Vista was one of them) but they definitely know how to write an IDE. Eclipse was free and usually you get what you pay for but Microsoft Express IDEs are free and they work nice. Just to get the Java IDEs set up is a major operation. AP is rewriting their curriculum to be language non-specific. I am thinking of waiting until I can do APCS in VB or C#. I do not mind a challenge but time becomes a major factor for a challenge like this. Of course I would also have to learn to actually program as opposed to my present method of beating a project to death but that is a minor detail. I will have to watch for a book titled “An Idiots Guide to APCS in C#”.

If you do end up teaching Java, I highly recommend staying away from Eclipse as a first IDE. It’s a wonderful tool but there are lots of quirks to it and it’s really not worth it for beginners. I favor jGRASP but there are other great options out there. Particularly, if you do objects first, I recommend BlueJ (I recommend not doing objects first, but that’s another story).